Kirkwood, Skiing #4

My rib still hurts, and the car is still in the shop. There were issues to be resolved and they are yet to start working on the repair. I obviously won't get it back before Christmas, but I wanted to go back up the mountain at least once before. I need a car for groceries and other things before Christmas as well, so I rented a car for a couple of days. I ended up with Honda Civic from Dollar.

On Dec 21, I took it to Kirkwood through winding road. At first, the car felt primitive. Press the pedal, and it would make noise. But it wouldn't go. I haven't been in a gas car for a few years now and I'm no longer used to it. After a while though, it became fun. The light-weight car was infinitely toss-able in the mountain road. I was driving 60 through the winding curves. Much more fun than the interstate cruiser known as Tesla Model S. I was reliving my 20s as such. I used to drive to Kirkwood from the Bay Area in my Integra. I'd be driving like a maniac through the darkening evening, anxious to get back home after a long day of skiing. 

Lunch Break at Sunrise Cafe

Skiing itself was a blast. The snow wasn't as nice as a week ago, naturally. The groomed runs turned icy at places, thanks to snowboarders scraping the hills. But ungroomed off-piste slopes still have plenty of soft moguls. After warming up on Solitude, as I used to 20 years ago, I stayed on Sunrise chair most of the day. When the backside became shady, I came back to the Solitude. The ridge -- I think it was called Eagle -- to the front side off Sunrise was rather bare. So, I skied down to Iron Horse and then came back to the front. It was just like the old days.

The next day, we went to pre-Christmas lunch at Yum Chinese Buffet and stuffed ourselves for 2 hours. In the evening, I drove the car back to the airport and dropped it off at Dollar. In all, I was up and running for 2 days after skiing. Then, the PEM bus arrived, and I crapped out in the afternoon of the 3rd day, for about 10 hours. I was then up and running again. 10 hours of PEM after hard skiing is not bad at all. The hard skiing probably required 3 days for recovery. But I still was flush with dopamine for 2 days, and that probably doused the PEM. And, when dopamine finally ran out, I crapped out.

Northstar, Skiing #3

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Some parts of the slopes haven't been skied on; the snow was still fresh. The moguls on the heavily skied on portion of Zephir were bigger. But the heavy snow made it slower and therefore more skiable. I stayed on Zephir most of the time, again. 

I managed to postpone the car repair till Wednesday. Then I was on my way back to the mountains on Tuesday. The snowbanks by the road were 6 feet tall, but the roads were fine. One day respite must've been enough to melt whatever's left after the plow shoveled aside to the shoulder. I stopped at Truckee Tesla station, took care of the morning business while refueling, and then I was on the yellow lot like the last time. I carried my backpack with lunch this time, got on the shuttle bus and I was on the slope by 10 AM. 

On the 2nd run, the tip of my skis got caught in a mound and I fell forward. One of the poles got stuck in the snow and impaled my ribcage. I'm not sure if the rib got bruised or broken. I've been in pain since and unable to breathe deeply. It felt a little better yesterday, then I sneezed and got stabbed by a terrible, sharp pain. Now I'm feeling worse.  I hope I'll back in shape to ski again by the time I get my car back. 

The moguls were more difficult, and hence progressively better for practice, than the last time. I was getting my rhythm right, up and down as well as side to side. Maybe this is the year that I finally mastered moguls. I'll have to move on to something else then, perhaps to powder skiing.

The aftermath followed the same as the last time: brief struggle with fatigue and sluggishness in the afternoon, 2 days after. It's more like delayed post-exercise fatigue. If the season progresses like it did last year, this pattern of post-exercise fatigue should continue throughout December, and then turn into post-exertional sickness in January.

Northstar and the Aftermath, Skiing #2

Skiing was fun once again. The latest storm left 3 ft of snow in the mountains and the packed snow supplied enough grip for control. To boot, Northstar had lots of intermediate/advanced slopes with small bumps that are perfect for mogul practice. 

Kirkwood had more snow and that is where I wanted to go. But then I remembered how slick the mountain road was 5 days ago after the second storm. I attempted to get to Kirkwood on 12/2, but I had to turned around at Pioneer just before Hwy 88 plunged into a dark ravine. The car already started to slip a few miles back, and the shaded downhill wasn't going to help the matter. I figured $5k damage that I incurred back in September in New Mexico was enough. Kirkwood will have to wait; I'm not going there till the weather has been clear for at least 2 days.

I got to Northstar around 9:30 AM after stopping for a quick charge in Truckee. But the parking lot was so far away from the lift -- you have to take shuttle to get to/from the lift -- it took me another 30 minutes to get on the slope. There were paid lots close to the lift, but I wasn't the one to shell out more fees on the top of $430 that I already paid for Epic Pass. Had I known that the parking was so far, I would've taken my backpack to carry my lunch with me. I had to take the shuttle back to my car for lunch, and I'm sure that took up another 30 minutes. 

I managed to squeeze in 3 skiing sessions of about 4 runs each. The runs were at least twice as long as those at Soda Springs (I had to take 3 breaks on each run off Zephir chair), so a session of 4 runs in Northstar is at least equivalent to 8 runs in Soda Springs. At the end of the first session, I took Comstock chair to the summit. That one required 5 breaks to get down.  It was 2 PM when I was back on the slope after lunch, and 4 PM when I was all done.  I came home after dark.

The aftermath followed the typical pattern. The next day, I was up and running, flush with dopamine. Then fatigue and struggle followed before mildly recovering the 3rd day, enough to squeeze in 4x1 block jogging. Today, I'm struggling with heavy fatigue from the jogging. I probably should've given full 3 days of rest instead of jogging.

Overall, it's an improvement over the aftermath of the first skiing on 11/14, which was within the 2-week probationary period after the flu shot. So, now I'm concluding that the subpar performance after the first skiing was due to the flu shot, not due to weaker novelty effect after 3 seasons of skiing. I should do fine throughout December. Then I'll half the amount and difficulty. Then again, I may not have to. I can ski three different resorts in CA with Epic Pass, so I may be able to keep the novelty effect alive throughout the season by rotating the resorts each month. If I make it to Park City, Utah, I may keep going full power well into April. We'll see.

Another storm just dumped 4 feet of snow and I should be going up the mountains again. But I have to take my car in for repair tomorrow, and it'll take a week to get it back. I'll see if I can postpone the appointment to Wednesday so that I can go back to Northstar on Tuesday.

15-mile Bike Ride

The 2-week probation period after the flu shot on 11/5 was over two weeks ago. On 11/30, I figured I'd be fine with bike riding, so I went on a ride intending to go to Discovery Park. I was knocked out just a day before, after walking from Tesla station to Barns and Noble and spending an hour walking about at the bookstore, but that was probably because I walked after jogging the day before. Biking 5 miles after a day of rest should be fine.

As I often do, I went over. I felt great when I got to Discovery Park, so I decided to continue on. I ended up at the trail near REI, and then I continued till I came to an access to the river. I poked around the river for a while and then returned, for the total of over 15 miles. The next afternoon I got knocked out. But I was back on my feet in the evening. It was one of the shortest post-exertional sickness.

When I biked 14 miles to REI on 10/24, I was knocked out for 3 days. post-trip probation of 2 weeks starts one week after returning from the life on the road, and that bike ride was right in the middle of that probation period.  I got sickened again this time, but only for half a day. 

Overall, not bad. Especially given that it was right after getting knocked out from jogging and then visiting the bookstore. And it was at a decent clip: Nonstop to the river and 130 minutes in total including two breaks. I should give 15-mile ride another try after at least two non-sick days.